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CANADA TUNES IN
MTV CANADA HAS BEEN UP AND RUNNING FOR A COUPLE OF MONTHS.
SO WHY HAVEN’T WE HEARD MUCH ABOUT IT? | BY MICHAEL WHITE
Exan Auyoung co-hosts
MTV Canada’s countdown show, Select
It popularized the music video, and forever
changed the multibillion dollar
music industry. Now MTV — 20 years
old and seen in 141 countries via 35
channels and 19 websites in 17 different
languages — has finally come to win over
our country.
MTV Canada quietly slipped onto satellite
and digital cable on October 18, 2001. But if
you hadn’t heard about it before now, you
aren’t alone.
“The roll-out of MTV Canada is being based on
word of mouth,” says vice president Wayne
Sterloff. “One of the important reasons for that is
we want the service to be highly reflective of the
local community. We want the earlier [viewers] to
feed back to us — what they think is cool, what
they think is lame — before we do our consumerlevel
advertising.” The first ad campaign is
expected to get going sometime this month.
This is a surprisingly cautious approach for
such a proven media powerhouse. More surprising,
though, is that MTV Canada isn’t the
product of years of planning, but an accident of
unrelated negotiations between MTV’s parent
company, Viacom, and the Calgary-based Craig
Broadcast Systems, which now operates the
north-of-the-border version.
Sterloff says both companies were working to
develop other channels, most notably a Canadian
youth lifestyle magazine when it “sort of dawned
on them” that MTV was a perfect match.
“Lifestyle” is the key term to understanding
how MTV Canada seeks to position itself within
a rapidly growing cable universe. You’d think
that MuchMusic, our country’s own 17-year-old
music channel, would be threatened by such
heavyweight competition. Yet the newcomer
stresses that the two are too different to be
considered rivals.
“I think it’s a totally different entity,” says Exan
Auyoung, co-host of Select, MTV Canada’s daily
interactive video countdown show — one of the
station’s few music-centred programs. Auyoung
adds that only about 10 percent of the channel’s
daily programming will be music videos. The rest
will be “youth culture” fare, such as the extreme
sports shows Fusion 2001 and The Ride Guide, and
the equally successful and controversial MTV
show Jackass, on which host Johnny Knoxville and
his cohorts perform dangerous stunts and pranks
— like jumping in front of cars or setting themselves
on fire to cook meat.
“[MTV Canada] isn’t a music channel; it’s a
lifestyle channel, and it’s dedicated to youth,”
says Sterloff. “It really reflects the entire culture,
not just one part of it.”
But lest you fear that MTV Canada represents
further encroachment of American culture
onto our airwaves, Sterloff says fear not. Up to
65 percent of the station’s programming will be
Canada-made. And the station will actively seek
out new, homegrown talent to produce original
MTV programs, including feature-length films.
Wasted, a gritty true-life drama about heroin
addiction among teenagers, will air early this
year. It was shot in Calgary.
“The reason that MTV is the largest global
network — larger than any other television network
— is because it’s local,” Sterloff says. “It’s
because they’re not just taking a signal out of
New York and beaming it into Argentina or
London or Ottawa.”
As MTV Canada begins to make itself
widely known in the coming weeks via its first
advertising blitz, those who are old enough
might remember that, back in 1983, “I want my
MTV” became an American buzz-phrase. With
plans for up to half a dozen spin-off channels
already afoot, time will tell if the Canadian
masses are finally ready to join in the chant.
Michael White is the music editor of The Calgary
famous 30 | january 2002
out
T HIS MONTH
Artist: Jordy Birch
Title: Jordy Birch’s Fun Machine
Label: Virgin Music Canada
Artist: Rory Block
Title: I’m Every Woman
Label: Rounder/Universal
Arist: Fieldy’s Dreams
Title: Rock N Roll Gangster
Label: Epic/Sony
Artist: Funkmaster Flex
Title: Volume
Label: Loud/Sony
Artist: Pat Green
Title: Three Days
Label: Universal
Artist: Hoobastank
Title: Hoobastank
Label: Island
Artist: Montell Jordan
Title: Montell Jordan
Label: Def Jam/Universal
Artist: Glen Lewis
Title: World Outside My Window
Label: Epic/Sony
Artist: Lowest of the Low
Title: Nothing Short of a Bullet
Label: Yesboy/Universal
Artist: Heather Myles
Title: Sweet Talkin’ Lies
Label: Rounder/Universal
Artist: Nine Inch Nails
Title: And All that Could Have Been
Label: Nothing/Interscope
Artist: Colin Raye
Title: Can’t Back Down
Label: Epic/Sony
Artist: West Coast Bad Boyz
Title: Poppin’ Collars
Label: Universal
Artist: X-Ecutioners
Title: Built From Scratch
Label: Loud/Sony